I had the opportunity recently to visit Arizona and take in some incredible natural beauty. The desert in the south of the state is different from the desert in the north. This render takes a bit from all of the different regions I visited, and adds a healthy dose of my own fancy.

The landforms were modeled using World Machine and are the first such efforts to appear in my gallery. Likewise, the cacti are my first original efforts modeled using "The Plant Factory". They appear at different levels-of-detail throughout the scene.

There are quite a few things I would like to change about this scene but I thought it looked nice enough to share as is and it has been too long since I've been able to update my gallery. Just rendering at 4K took nearly 72 hours!

I first attempted a 5K render that went for 5 days being lost to an inadvertent reboot. I re-rendered at 4K to save time so that is why I do not have a 5k version to offer at the moment. Run Shadowfax, show us the meaning of haste

As soon as this image is posted I will be shutting down Bucephalus, installing my new GTX 980 and swapping out my old Dell 3007 for as many of my new BenQ 4K panels as I can get to run. I hope to have the rest of Shadowfax assembled and in action within a week or so.

Since there are no consumer UHD+ 16:10 monitors, this might be the last render I create at that aspect ratio...

The fundraiser was so successful that I've been able to purchase a 3rd machine (a Bucephalus clone) that will act as a third renderer! I will be calling this machine "Arion".

My plan is to have three machines with each one hooked up to a 4K monitor on my desk. The actual machines will be in a room below me in my basement (keeping cool hopefully). Then I can just switch between them and work/render 3 projects at a time!

I will shut the fundraiser down when 48 hours elapse between donations. All funds that I've received beyond the initial goal will be used to update my software arsenal and generally help keep DB running for another year.

All support is appreciated but keep in mind that GoFundMe takes around 8% of your donation whereas if you give through my site directly I only pay around 3% :-)

I would love to move my workstations to a (much cooler) room in my basement and work on them from my office upstairs. I would love for my office to not sound like the deck of an aircraft carrier and be 15 degrees warmer than the rest of the house.
Beyond that I might have enough to to build a third machine to house the 48 GB of RAM that I just pulled out of Bucephalus.
In short, the extra support will go to good use!! Huge thanks to everyone who donated. I had to order another 500 "Highland Spring" Thank You cards this morning!!

So many folks have requested a green Fluorescence for St. Paddy's day over the years. Why haven't I done it before? Good question. I just remembered today because I wanted to use a green version of "Fluorescence" for my Facebook Page Profile Pic but saw to my chagrin that I didn't have one!

Rather than simply shift the hue of the blue version using Photoshop I chose to re-shade and re-render the mushrooms using "shamrock green" (#009E60). Since I went to all that trouble I thought I should probably post the wallpaper for my Members (multiscreens available too!).

Please enjoy responsibly!! Stay tuned for the multiscreen version of "Weirwood" and something new...

"The weirwood's bark was white as bone, its leaves dark red, like a thousand bloodstained hands. A face had been carved in the trunk of the great tree, its features long and melancholy, the deep-cut eyes red with dried sap and strangely watchful." -- A Game of Thrones by George R. R. Martin

As with all of my Vue d'Esprit renders lately, this one took an extremely long time to finish at 5K. Of course I am planning to do a multiscreen but it may be a while. If you are already a Member and a fan of my multiscreen renders I ask that you consider supporting my "Project Shadowfax" which should greatly speed up the process of bringing you artwork for your multiple screens!!

A few items to report this morning. First, I've added dual and triple-screen versions of "Hexagram" to the Members Gallery. The multi-4K versions, however, are still rendering. Check back in a day or two and I should them available (along with smoother renders for the lower-resolutions). Since I used Lightwave for this render I have the luxury of letting Fprime "refine" the render while I use what I have.

Next I wanted to mention that Google will no longer accept payments for "digital goods" after March 1. If you want to use your Google Wallet funds to purchase a Membership or Renew you have until the end of the day on 3/1 to do so. This one hurts because quite a few Members have used it in the past year and I thought it was working really well.

"The Promise of Spring" is new in the Members Gallery this morning.
Hard to believe it has been 7 years since I posted the original. I was never quite satisfied with how blocky and chaotic everything came out in the first version. I think this one has a bit more pop.

I am not totally satisfied with how Vue d'Esprit's DOF came out this time. Some areas are great but others have a few artifacts (which are less noticeable at the lower resolutions). I do think it's looks nice enough to share in my gallery while I make any necessary revisions. Dual and triple-screen versions are available too!

Thanks so much to everyone who decided that last week was the right time to support my work and help me along towards my new workstation. I would say that I am about a 10th of the way there however so I still need your help!

A lot of folks have suggested that I set up a crowdfunding effort for the new machine so here goes. Let me know if you have any questions!

A couple of items to mention. First, "Hexagram" is new in the Members Gallery tonight. Continuing my education with "Structure Synth". I have a new Vue d'Esprit render going as well, but it is still a ways off...

Second, I've put together a page for "Project Shadowfax". That is a name I've chosen for my next workstation. I hope you will take a look and help me make it a reality!!

I've added "Recursion" to the abstracts gallery tonight. I am still learning to use "Structure Synth" and this structure spoke to me for some reason. I should be able to do a multiscreen fairly soon as well. Speaking of multiscreens...

I received an email from a fan this morning that may be of interest to multiscreen users...
My name is Jake, long-time fan and lifetime member. The last 5 wallpapers have not had the dual screen options, what’s going on? Those are the only ones I use. I have 3 dual screen setups, and I use display fusion to rotate every 15 mins between your most recent 30 wallpapers. Are the most recent wallpapers going to be offered in dual screen format anytime soon? Thanks man, much appreciated.

My reply...

Thanks for writing! I apologize for the slowdown in dual-screens. The simple answer is that I don't have the hardware right now to render multi-5K scenes in Vue d'Esprit. The single 5K renders are taking between 7-10 days at this point so multiply that by 3 (rendering for 2 extra 5K screens) and you see my problem. Lord help me when 8K monitors come out...

I should be able to bite into my backlog when get a new workstation later this spring. Then I can set my current rig to start rendering Vue multiscreens. Until then you might want to try using the 5K single screen image and see if you can find an interesting crop to fit your config?

PS: I would add that I am working on a couple of Lightwave scenes right now (while rendering the multiscreen version of "Moondance") so there should be a few new multiscreens coming soon!

~Ryan

All hardware and software purchases, of course, have to be approved by the DB Master of Coin (Jessie). She tells me that a lot more people need to sign up and renew before we can lay out for a new render-beast.

Moondance is new in the Members Gallery this morning after around 72 hours rendering at 5K. Those of you who checked out the Members-Only WIP preview will notice that I've added quite a few more light sources to the scene. Let me know what you think in the comments!

I've added "Midnight Sun" to the Members Gallery today. It's been rendering on Bucephalus for far too long but I hope you feel it was worth the wait. It may be a while before I'm able to post multiscreens for this one so I would recommend using the 5K version if you can get away with it. Let me know what you think.

I definitely need to upgrade my rendering hardware this year if I am going to be doing 5K renders for all my wallpapers. If you have a 4K or 5K monitor (or plan to get one) I would certainly appreciate you not taking the sliding sale discount when you sign up or renew! The faster I can render these the more I can post in a year. Thanks!!

This new version of "Winterborn" was inspired by the incredible macro-photography of Alexey Kljatov. I used one of background ice crystals from the 2012 revision which were all modelled using Incendia's Snowflake modeler.

This particular crystal was created while I was showing my son Jason how to use the program back when he was only 6 years old (he entered the parameters, I completed the shading which is really the hard part). For this render I created the "threads" in Xfrog and rendered the whole using Lightwave 11.

Happy 2015 everyone! My two main machines are still rendering Vue landscapes so I've been working on my old Macbook Pro the past few days. "Synctorii" is new in the Members Gallery today...

"Synctorii" is my first wallpaper of 2015. I modeled and rendered this one completely on my trusty 2010 Macbook Pro. Trust me, if you ever want to stay warm in the winter try 3D modeling on a Macbook (using Windows!). My IR thermometer measured 130 degrees on the bottom...

I guess this render is my imagining just what might be going on beneath all that brushed aluminum...

Bucephalus is rendering the last of my "December Ice" series. It's a successor to "Circumpolar" but not necessarily a remake. The translucent ice, however, is taking forever to render due. It should be finished in the next couple of days (fingers-crossed).

My Asfaloth mobile workstation is rendering a new Vue landscape which I will not spoil by describing..

Besides new hardware, I thinking 2015 may just be the year I update the main website and finally produce usable mobile apps. I would be happy to listen to any and all input my Members may have about the what they would like to see from such efforts!

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